A purple hue reflected off the horizon, casting an indigo shadow onto the city skyline. Or maybe it was the other way round; it was hard to tell when humanity has imbued so much arcani into their daily lives that even the natural environment gets affected.
Narrow concrete buildings coated themselves in the distinct purple coloured essence of arcani, decorated by protective magic symbols that could easily withstand a thunderbolt hurled by the occasional drunk Mage. An array of shophouses ran along the sides of the streets, selling a variety of items ranging from simple Sorcerer spellcrafts to offensive wands that required a licence to wield.
Most magis preferred casting their magic with a staff instead of wands, since the former could channel virtually any kind of magic easily. But wands still had their uses, especially for the non-magi who cannot channel arcani. Like metas, wands hold arcani within themselves and can be primed to perform fixed magical actions.
A doorbell tinkled as Felix opened the wooden doors to the cosy, vintage looking wand shop. He walked to the counter, smiling as politely as he could at the unfamiliar face manning it. The old man did not return the smile.
“Hi, I’m here to pick up a custom-made wand,” Felix said, pulling out a receipt and his council wand licence. “I ordered it a few weeks ago.”
The old man ignored the licence and pulled down his round rimmed glasses, examining the piece of paper with an unimpressed look on his face. His eyes narrowed.
“Payment by a glyph wallet? You’re a meta, boy?” he asked him suspiciously. “What do you need the wand for?”
“I- I don’t think I’m obliged to tell you that, sir. But if you insist on knowing, it’s a gift for a friend,” Felix replied. “Perhaps you can check with Helios, he knows about-”
“I’m in charge of the store, young man!” the old man shouted, his face turning red in anger. “I know your kind; I know you metas are always up to no good! Metas are always destroying the peace in this city. Like hell I’m selling my wand to someone like you!”
Felix sighed.
“If that’s how it is, may I have my deposit back then?” He pursed his lips, trying his best not to argue and give the old magi a cardiac arrest.
“What? No way! You’re not welcome here! Go and do your crime somewhere else, you-”
“Father!” The wooden boards creaked, accompanied by the sound of hurried footsteps. A stocky young man emerged from the back of the store, rushing to the counter.
“By the gods, you’re going to scare all our customers away. This is the last time I leave you to man the counter by yourself.” The young man ushered his father back to the back of the store. He reappeared shortly after, carrying an ornate box.
“I’m so sorry about that.” He handed it to Felix. “I hope you don’t take offence; my father’s a little simple-minded when it comes to racial issues.”
“None taken, Helios. And he’s not entirely wrong about most of my race being criminals, so I’m used to it.” Felix shrugged as he took out a wooden board wrapped with boar skin from his coat pocket. Helios picked up a wand by the counter and hovered it over the glyph wallet.
Two symbols carved into the animal skin lit up. One resembled a leaf while the other was crescent shaped. There was another symbol that resembled a sun, but it remained unlit. A strobe of light travelled from the wand into the similar glyphs on Helios’ wrist, lighting up the sun-shaped symbol tattooed on his skin.
“I see you’ve earned yet another Sawel.” Felix grinned. “Business must be good.”
“If it was, it wouldn’t have taken a whole year to fill up that glyph.” The Artificer sighed, handing back the wallet to Felix. “Are you doing alright? Your funds seem to be running a little low.”
“Eh, not to worry. I’ve got plenty of those ‘denatured arcani’ in the bank,” Felix said. “The neighbourhood’s not that safe for me to carry so much around, especially when metas like me can’t use tattooed glyphs like normal people.”
“You should try breaking down your glyphs into their lower currency form; it makes you less of a target when robbers don’t see that leaf shaped Tellus light up. You have been taught about currency conversion, right?”
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“What, do you still think I’m in elementary school or something?” Felix chuckled. “Twenty Lunas equals one Tellus and fifty Tellus equals one Sawel. Even my sister’s learned that already.”
“Just making sure.” Helios laughed as Felix headed for the door. “Have a great day!”
A deafening elephant trumpet greeted Felix the moment he stepped onto the street. He turned his head to the source of the commotion. Sure enough, an elephant was bellowing in effort, trying to pull a large steel beam from some wet cement on the ground.
Meta construction workers surrounded it, using their powers to help it as well. One looked like he was radiating heat from his hands to prevent the cement from solidifying, while another wrapped his elastic body around the beam, struggling with his fellow worker to pull it out. The crowd grew larger, watching the magi supervisor do nothing else except yell at his workers to move the ten tonne beam from the ‘expensive cement’.
Felix sighed quietly and focused his mind. A faint pink essence wrapped around the beam. He lifted a finger casually, and the huge piece of metal dislodged itself from the cement. It dropped to the ground with a loud clang.
The crowd dispersed themselves, eager to leave as though the credits of the ten minute show would start rolling at any moment. The workers sat on the ground, fanning themselves in relief while the elephant morphed back into a thin man. He looked around with a confused look. Felix turned to leave before he caught the attention of anyone else, but he had already felt a stare from behind him.
He turned his head back, and gave the grateful looking worker a knowing nod before continuing on his way home.
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Felix walked up the short flight of stairs, pretending not to notice the yellow sparrow tailing him ever since he turned into Whitbourne Street. He tapped a wand against the doorknob, dispelling the complex magic enchantment that kept his door locked. The unsuspecting boy stepped into his house.
Confetti rained down on him with a loud pop as his foot activated the pressure mechanism on the first floorboard. Light footsteps scuttled towards him as he felt a pair of small hands wrap around his waist.
“Welcome home, brother! Congratulations on another successful mission; you guys were all over the news this morning!”
“How long were you waiting for me, Marcia?” Felix chuckled, brushing the confetti from his hair.
“Oh, not too long.” His sister smiled mischievously. “A little bird on my shoulder told me just when to expect you.”
“Let me guess, that little friend of yours is yellow in colour.” Felix’s eyes glowed slightly as the confetti collected themselves off the floor and floated into the dustbin. “How was school today?”
Marcia’s face fell for a brief moment, before she forced a smile again.
“It was great!” the twelve year old girl piped. “We… We visited the zoo today!”
“Did something happen?” Felix furrowed his eyebrows.
“N-no…”
“Marcia,” he asked sternly, holding her hand. “What happened? You know I’d rather not read your mind.”
“It wasn’t my fault!” Marcia cried out. “Those girls were bullying that poor otter, so I just stepped in to tell them off. I swear I didn’t tell it to attack them! But they didn’t believe me, and they… they…”
“They hurt you?” Felix’s voice raised a little.
“The teacher stepped in before they could cast a spell.” Marcia shook her head. “She yelled at me to return to my class and called me a…”
Lowly meta.
The teacher’s words echoed in Felix’s mind as clearly as his sister’s memory. As clearly as his own memory. It was all too familiar. Even his own teachers were never kind to meta children. Their homeroom teachers had always resented being placed in charge of a meta class and being forced to teach an oversimplified syllabus. Most of these students eventually amount to underpaid general workers as a result, never getting the chance to move up into the middle class.
A dull fire burned within Felix’s chest but quickly simmered down; righteous indignation was not something his sister needed at the moment. He knelt down and pulled her into a tight embrace as she sobbed into his shoulder.
“It’s not fair,” she cried. “We didn’t ask to be born this way. We didn’t do anything wrong. Why must they treat us like that? I wish I wasn’t a meta…”
“That’s just how the world is, Marcia.” Felix gently wiped the tears off his sister’s face. “And this is how we are. Dad and Mom aren’t here to protect us anymore. We have to rely on our own abilities to overcome the challenges of this world. Chin up, alright? We’ll do this together. I’ll always be here for you.”
“I’m sorry for ruining the mood, Felix.” Marcia let go of him and trudged back to her room. Felix pulled out the ornate box from his blazer jacket and stared at it for a moment. An idea popped into his head. He took out his phone and flipped the phonebook to a contact named ‘Orpheus Caesar’.
He tapped the call button.